Yuki Amami Movies

Acclaimed anime master Hayao Miyazaki returns for his ninth animated feature with Ponyo, which deals with a friendship between a five-year-old boy and a goldfish princess who yearns to be human. The daughter of the king of the ocean, Ponyo is no ordinary goldfish -- she has all the magic of the sea at her disposal. But when five-year-old Sosuke befriends the spunky little fish near the seaside home he shares with his mother and father, a special connection sparks between the two children, and Ponyo becomes determined to become human. Transforming into a little girl, Ponyo shows up at Sosuke's doorstep, delighted to make herself at home with her new land-dwelling family. But having a magical fish princess walking around on dry land begins setting the mystical balance of the world off kilter, and even though the innocent love Ponyo feels for her dear friend is strong, it will take some help from the greatest powers in the ocean to make things right again. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Following up on his smash-hit Kinyu Fushuku Retto Jubake about corporate corruption, Masato Harada directs this big-budget police drama about the infamous ten-day police siege of a band of radicals in the hills near Karuizawa in 1972. Adapted from the memoirs of top cop and soon-to-be Cabinet official Atsuyuki Sassa, the film is unapologetically one-sided, detailing the police's struggle to keep the body count down and society safe. The film opens with Sassa (Koji Yakusho) and his superiors dealing with a rash of shootings, bombings and kidnaps by the Red Army. When a hostage situation arises in that cabin in Karuizawa, Sassa's boss, Gotoda (Makoto Fuijta), insists that he head up the police response. Gotoda also gives him series of seemingly impossible conditions: no radicals are to be killed (lest they be made into martyrs), no demands are to be appeased, and no police should be placed in harm's way. When arriving on the scene, Sassa soon realizes that the political situation behind battle lines is just as ticklish as those in front. The local police are none too thrilled to have the Metropolitan Police Department (the de facto national police) in their backyard, while the political backbiting continues at the office. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

One-time cartoonist, screenwriter, 'roman porno' director Takashi Ishii continues his famous film-noir series with Black Angel Vol. 2. The protagonist is Mayo, the Black Angel, a top hit-woman who belongs to a secret gang of murderers. Her latest assignment is to kill Yakazi, a powerful Yakuza (gangster) boss who is about to start a gang war. Mayo has her first try in a remote underground park but she is interrupted by Yamabe, Yakazi's bodyguard. Yamabe looks like the man who saved her when she was about to be raped as a teenager. However, Yamabe does not recognize her and shoots. He misses and hits a passerby, the husband of pregnant Suzu, who dies in his wife's arms. Mayo gets another urgent order to kill Yakazi, but her love for Yamabe is in the way. Meanwhile Yamabe is following Mayo and Suzu is following Yamabe to avenge her husband. The drama of the three characters is the film's focus, but the action scenes, as in the more action-oriented Volume 1, are as visually stunning as ever. Black Angel Vol. 2 had its international premiere at the 1999 International Film Festival in Rotterdam. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi